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‘Completeness’ by Itamar Moses

Completeness is a story about searching for new love and the right answer only to return to the same problems

Three to Five Sentence version of the story

Completeness is the story of two graduate students trying to find the missing puzzle pieces in their studies and their personal lives. The two try to satisfy these needs by becoming intimate with each other after Elliot provides the “answers” to Molly’s studies. In the end Molly and Elliot return to old habits an move on from each other, ever so slowly moving themselves through life with a little more information than when they started.

The world of the play:

The play takes place in interior spaces. These spaces are cramped – long desks of computers, tiny single-room apartments, different academic departments shares buildings.

The social world:

My first reaction to this play socially was that its characters are awkward. They are not sure what they want or what will work best for them intimately and in their academic pursuits. There are a lot of pauses in the dialogue (Like. . . . Umm. . . . Did you get that?)

Privacy and private spaces play a central role in this play. There are not any other characters in the background that are listening in or contributing. It’s as if the characters are stuck under a spotlight and everyone else is not seen. The characters are always talking directly to each other – an audience of one. In some ways this relieves social pressure. In other ways it makes the characters reactionary at times – needing to fill the dead space with an answer.

What changes?

By the middle of the play, Molly and Elliot begin to repeat their past relationship issues with each other. They become comfortable with each other and this foreshadows their eventual split.

What changes in you?

By the time Elliot is kissing Nell and Molly is with Franklin, I felt my self less empathically tied to the characters. Everyone has been through transitional relationships, but Molly and Elliot begin to look like broken records. They seem to be caught in a relationship purgatory, a place where they know what is wrong but are not mature (or possibly lucky) enough to find a match powerful enough to keep them from playing out the same tune again and again.